NGPF Blog

Background (from datavizblog.com):
NPR has written a lot about how income has changed (or not) for the rich, middle class and poor in the U.S. In the past, however, they have written much less about what the rich, middle class and poor actually do for work.
Questions:
What is the most common job for the top earning professionals?
What is the most common job for the lowest earning workers?
Is there any overlap where jobs show up in multiple income levels? Does it tend...

Note: Shaded regions indicate periods when the economy was in recession, a period of time when the economy is contracting instead of growing.
Questions:
Finish the sentence based on the information in the graph: The ______ education you have the _______ the _____________________ rate.
During what periods is the gap in unemployment between the least educated and most educated the widest? the narrowest?
Your friend tells you that some college is better than none. Based on...

Great graphic that displays the economic transformation that has occurred since 1900 based on the industry composition of the stock market.
From Visual Capitalist:
Questions:
What industry has seen the most dramatic decline since 1900? Can you explain the change in that industry?
Which industry has seen the largest increase (and didn't even exist in 1900)?
What do you think this chart would look like in 2100? Explain your reasoning.
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NGPF's Data...

From Retirement Field Guide, comes a chart showing the stock chart for an S&P 500 ETF (which tracks S&P 500 Index) from 2012 to present with quotes from noted pundits.
Click on the chart to get a larger version that is easier to read:
Questions:
How much has the S&P 500 risen over this period?
Why do you think that so many experts may have been expecting a crash in 2012? (Hint: what happened a few years earlier?)
What is it about the stock market that makes us...

Hat tip to Beth Tallman:
Questions
What happened between 2010 and 2018 to hospital spending and tax rates?
Does it surprise you that Americans spend more on hospital spending than they did for federal income taxes?
Your friends says that he thinks hospital costs have peaked in 2018. Does the graph support his argument?
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Check out NGPF Insurance Unit Page for ideas on how to bring insurance to life for your students.
Behind the chart from...

From Visual Capitalist comes a state-by-state analysis of the largest public and private employers. Can you guess which private sector employer dominates the grayed out section on this map? Click on the map to get the answer:
Questions (after watching 2:55 video):
Who is the largest employer in your state?
The largest employers by state are typically in what industries? Of those industries, which do you think have the highest paying jobs?
Do you think the largest employers by...

Questions:
What's the overall trend with consumer debt since 2003?
Which loan type has grown the fastest since 2003?
Estimate percentages for each of the three loan types. In other words, what percentage of overall consumer debt is auto loans, student loans and credit card debt
What additional data points would you need to know in order to assess how stressed consumers are with debt payments?
...

For your investing unit, this chart below shows the annual returns of the S&P 500 from 1927 through January 19, 2018.
Since investors talk in terms of returns when talking about stocks, I recommend going into detail about exactly how a return is calculated for a stock over a given period:
(End of period price for index - beginning of period price for index) divided by the beginning of period price.
So let's show an example and calculate what the return for 2019 has been for the...

From Pew Research:
Consumers have long relied on advice and recommendations from others before making purchasing decisions, and Americans today have access to a vast library of customer ratings and reviews that they can consult when deciding if products or services are worth their money. This survey finds that a substantial majority of the public now incorporates these customer ratings and reviews into their decision-making processes when buying something new: Fully 82% of U.S. adults say they...

History was recently made. As the chart above shows there are now more job openings than unemployed workers.
Questions:
In what year was the gap widest in terms of the difference between the number of unemployed and the available jobs? What do you think happens to wages for workers in that year?
What has been the primary contributor to this situation in 2018 where job openings now exceed the number of unemployed? Has it been the growth in job openings or the decrease in the number...

From ValuePenguin:
Questions:
How do you think auto insurance companies determine the premiums that they charge their customers?
Why do you think 16 year old boys have insurance premiums that are $64 more per month than similarly aged girls?
What is the percentage drop in premiums between the ages of 16 and 30 for men? for women? Why do you think there is such a large drop?
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Looking for more charts for your students to analyze? Check out NGPF's Data...

...they might want to ask the banker "Are you sharing my fees with the college so every time I overdraw my account...my college benefits?"
Here's the data showing the average costs by bank:
From MarketWatch:
During the 2016-2017 academic year, students using college-endorsed debit or prepaid accounts paid $27,600,000 in account fees, according to the report. And students tended to pay more fees when financial institutions paid their colleges to promote the accounts. That could...

Chart courtesy of Statista:
Questions:
Why do you think there is such a difference in the minimum wage rates by state?
What is the minimum wage in your state? Is it different in your area?
What do you think determines minimum wage levels in a given market (city, town, county)?
Analyzing this chart, what would you guess the federal minimum wage is?
Describe the typical worker that earns the minimum wage (education level, age, experience, type of job, industry)?
What do...

From The Atlantic:
Hat tip to Sonia from the NGPF team for pointing out this informative article from the Atlantic. Here's how it described life in 1900:
In 1900, seen from perch of the Bureau of Labor Statistics -- which counts national jobs, income and spending -- the United States is like one big farm surrounded by a cluster of small factories. Almost half of the country works in agriculture. As for the budding services economy: There are more household servants than sales...

Answer: Texting
Questions:
What is your preferred method of communication? Explain.
How do you think these percentages will change by 2023?
What are situations where in-person communication might be more effective than texting or social media?
Do you think these preferences will impact communication patterns in the workplace in the future? Explain.
Here's the ready-to-go slides for this Question of the Day that you can use in your classroom.
Behind the numbers...

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